Pulmonary artery catheter-directed thrombolysis for intermediate high risk acute pulmonary embolism

Abstract

A case of 60-year-old male with acute pulmonary embolism without hypotension but signs of right ventricular dysfunction and elevated cardiac biomarkers is reported in this study. The patient comes under intermediate high-risk category and was successfully thrombolysed with alteplase infused through pulmonary artery catheter. Catheter-directed thrombolysis (CDT) can be considered as much safer and effective alternative to systemic thrombolysis in such patients with lower risk of bleeding. This novel bedside method of pulmonary artery CDT with the advantage of no radiation exposure and real time monitoring of pulmonary artery pressures as an end-point of thrombolysis can be utilized in the near future.

Keywords

• Acute pulmonary embolism
• pulmonary artery catheter
• thrombolysis